On the day he was detained, Piedone's nephew was elected to the leadership of the party founded by Dan Voiculescu
Iulian Cârlogea, the public administrator of Sector 5, was detained late Friday evening, after being questioned by DNA prosecutors, according to HotNews sources. The preventive measure was taken, after during the morning the prosecutors made searches at the City Hall of Sector 5, led by Vlad Popescu Piedone, but also at some addresses in Bucharest and Ilfov county.
In the corruption case, Robert Mihai Bașca, the chief architect of the sector, and Florin Chioran, deputy director of the Local Police of Sector 5, are also targeted, who were also detained for 24 hours, according to HotNews sources.
The DNA announced on Friday that it was investigating “suspicions regarding the commission, in the period 2024-2026, of some corruption crimes” and that the prosecutors had “searched homes in 9 locations located within the radius of the city of Bucharest and Ilfov county, four of which are the headquarters of public institutions, and the rest are the homes of natural persons”, without mentioning the names of the persons or the concerned institutions.
“The facts investigated were allegedly committed by public officials and refer to possible illegal actions to expedite the reception of a building and to attest the construction of a residential complex, through administrative procedures and documents,” stated the DNA.
The file investigates alleged crimes of influence peddling, taking and bribery, in connection with the issuance of authorizations for the construction of new blocks of flats, according to HotNews sources.
Iulian Cârlogea, detained. Prosecutors are asking for remand
Iulian Cârlogea, Robert Mihai Bașca and Florin Chioran will appear before the Bucharest Court on Saturday, with a proposal for preventive arrest, HotNews sources said.
Iulian Constantin Cârlogea holds the position of public administrator (city manager) of Sector 5 since 2020, when Cristian Popescu Piedone, his mother's brother, was the mayor, according to the investigative website Snoop.ro.
Snoop.ro revealed last year that Iulian Cârlogea had a wedding at a luxury restaurant that Piedone, then head of the ANPC, had praised a month before, during an inspection carried out in his capacity as president of the ANPC, a position from which Piedone was also removed following a DNA investigation. Iulian Cârlogea did not then respond to Snoop's messages and questions on this subject.
Lebăda Luxury Resort & Spa, a five-star complex in the Danube Delta, is owned by businessmen Iulian Robu and Constantin Căpățână, known especially for the development of the Militari Residence complex.
Snoop wrote that Ana-Veronica Şerban, Cârlogea's wife, also an employee of the town hall, had an apartment in a complex owned by the owners of the Lebăda resort, real estate developers in Sector 5. Piedone's town hall issued town planning certificates to the developers in 2023, according to Snoop.ro.
The spokesperson of the Sector 5 City Hall said on Friday morning that the mayor Vlad Popescu Piedone, son of Cristian Popescu Piedone, was informed about the searches, according to Euronews Romania.
“The investigative bodies have arrived this morning in the town hall of Sector 5, they are going to proceed with access to different offices, depending on what the prosecutors are looking for. We don't have a lot of data, our colleagues are at the disposal of the investigative bodies, they are providing everything that is requested, and they will send an official communication,” said the spokesperson Vlad Tiliță.
Piedone's nephew, elected to the leadership of PUSL
On Friday, when the prosecutors went down to the City Hall of Sector 5 and the homes of the targeted persons, the party founded by Dan Voiculescu, PUSL (Partidul Humanist Social Liberal), was electing its leadership in Ploiești.
Iulian Cârlogea was elected vice-president of the National Permanent Bureau during the congress, according to an announcement made by PUSL on the Facebook page. He was also in the past vice-president of the PUSL, according to the 2024 declaration of interests.
And the mayor of Sector 5, Vlad Popescu Piedone, was voted into the leadership structure of the political formation, occupying the same position as Cârlogea in the BPN.
HotNews requested a point of view from the spokeswoman of PUSL, Lavinia Şandru, elected on Friday, during the congress, president of the Central Strategy and Communication Office.
On the PUSL website, Cârlogea appears in the “Central Management Core” and interim leader of the branch in Bucharest.
Cristian Popescu Piedone was replaced as executive president of the party founded by Dan Voiculescu in August 2025. Later, he launched a new political formation, the Nationalist Reformation of Romania Party (PNRR).
What a fortune Iulian Cârlogea has
According to the wealth declaration from 2024, the most recent, the public administrator of Sector 5 owns six homes, acquired between 2011 and 2019: two houses in Bragadiru, Ilfov county, three apartments in Bucharest and one in Mamaia.
He also alienated, in 2023, by promise, a house worth 80,000 euros, to Capotă Petre Dorin.
According to PressHub, Vlad Popescu Piedone, the mayor of sector 5, has a brother-in-law named Dorin Petre Capotă, who in the past held the position of secretary in the Board of Directors of the Salubrizare Sector 5 company, subordinate to the Sector 5 City Hall.
In the city manager's asset declaration on the website of the Sector 5 City Hall, the name of the person to whom the property was sold is anonymized. The name appears in the wealth declaration on the ANI website.
Cârlogea also declared that he also owns three cars: a Dacia from 1982, a Mercedes-Benz from 1954 and a Cadillac from 1956. He also specified jewelry worth 10,000 euros in the wealth declaration.
For the year 2023, Cârlogea declared total income of over 300,000 lei, from income obtained from public positions at the Sector 5 City Hall and the Sector 4 local council. In the accounts, he stated that he has approximately 70,000 euros.
